Control-hold mode

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus are presented for implementing an improved Control-Hold Mode that reduces the load of the reverse link and reduces the battery consumption of remote stations. While a remote station is in the improved Control-Hold Mode, the circuitry that monitors the forward packet data channels and the associated control channels are turned off. Since the forward packet data channels and their associated control channels are not monitored, the operations of the reverse channels can be gated off to predetermined duty cycles, or set on intermittent transmission modes, or shut down completely. Transitions from the Control-Hold Mode to the Active Mode can be initiated by the remote station or by a base station. When a transition is initiated by a remote station, the remote station transmits a signaling message to a serving base station and then starts operating the feedback channels before actually receiving forward link signals.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention relates generally to communications, and morespecifically, to reducing the load of the reverse link and the powerconsumption of remote stations.

2. Background

The field of wireless communications has many applications including,e.g., cordless telephones, paging, wireless local loops, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), Internet telephony, and satellitecommunication systems. A particularly important application is cellulartelephone systems for remote subscribers. As used herein, the term“cellular” system encompasses both cellular and personal communicationsservices (PCS) frequencies. Various over-the-air interfaces have beendeveloped for such cellular telephone systems including, e.g., frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA),and code division multiple access (CDMA). In connection therewith,various domestic and international standards have been establishedincluding, e.g., Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Global System forMobile (GSM), and Interim Standard 95 (IS-95). IS-95 and itsderivatives, IS-95A, IS-95B, ANSI J-STD-008 (often referred tocollectively herein as IS-95), and proposed high-data-rate systems arepromulgated by the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) andother well known standards bodies.

Cellular telephone systems configured in accordance with the use of theIS-95 standard employ CDMA signal processing techniques to providehighly efficient and robust cellular telephone service. Exemplarycellular telephone systems configured substantially in accordance withthe use of the IS-95 standard are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,103,459and 4,901,307, which are assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention and incorporated by reference herein. An exemplary systemutilizing CDMA techniques is the cdma2000 ITU-R Radio TransmissionTechnology (RTT) Candidate Submission (referred to herein as cdma2000),issued by the TIA. The standard for cdma2000 is given in the draftversions of IS-2000 and has been approved by the TIA and 3GPP2. AnotherCDMA standard is the W-CDMA standard, as embodied in 3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project “3GPP,” Document Nos. 3G TS 25.211, 3G TS 25.212, 3GTS 25.213, and 3G TS 25.214.

The telecommunication standards cited above are examples of only some ofthe various communications systems that can be implemented. Within thesevarious communications systems, multiple users must share limited systemresources. In accordance with the actual system implementation,resources such as frequency bandwidth, time, transmission power, orspreading code assignments are typically shared by multiple users withinthe system. In a FDMA system, the system bandwidth is divided into manyfrequency channels and each frequency channel is allocated to a user. Ina TDMA system, the system bandwidth is divided into many time slots andeach time slot is allocated to a user. In a CDMA system, the systembandwidth is simultaneously shared among all users by using spreadingcodes, wherein each user is assigned a spreading code.

User demand drives the design and development of more efficient systems.The present invention addresses this need by allowing remote stations toindividually employ an improved Control-Hold Mode that will reduce theoverall load of the reverse link and the power consumption of remotestations. The reverse link comprises the communication channels from theremote stations directed to a base station. The forward link comprisesthe communication channels from a base station to various remotestations operating within the range of the base station. A remotestation that is operating in the improved Control-Hold Mode will not bemonitoring nor responding to most of the forward link transmissions froma base station. Hence, when individual remote stations are operating inthe improved Control-Hold Mode, the overall load of the reverse linkwill be reduced.

Moreover, once a remote station enters into the improved Control-HoldMode, some of the processing circuitry that is utilized for monitoringand responding to forward link signals will be left idle, whichimmediately and directly impact the power consumption of the remotestation. Hence, another benefit of employing the improved Control-HoldMode will be an increase in the battery life of a remote station.

SUMMARY

Methods and apparatus are presented to address the needs stated above.In one aspect, an apparatus is presented for implementing an improvedControl-Hold Mode within a remote station, wherein the remote stationoperates within a communication system that employs packet data channelswith associated control channels, and associated feedback channels, theapparatus comprising: a memory element; and a processing elementconfigured to execute a set of instructions stored in the memoryelement, the set of instructions for: ceasing the monitoring of packetdata channels from a base station; ceasing the monitoring of controlchannels associated with the packet data channels from the base station;turning off a reverse link acknowledgment channel; gating offtransmissions from the remote station to the base station; andintermittently transmitting over a data control channel.

In another aspect, a method is presented for updating an active set whena remote station is in an improved Control-Hold Mode, the methodcomprising: transmitting a pilot strength measurement to a base station;receiving a signaling message from the base station; transitioning fromthe improved Control-Hold Mode to an Active Mode, wherein thetransitioning is triggered by the signaling message; receiving anacknowledgment message with update information from the base station;updating the active set with the update information from the basestation; and transitioning from the Active Mode to the Control-HoldMode.

In another aspect, a method is presented for a remote station to switchsectors in a base station while the remote station is in a Control-HoldMode, comprising: determining whether a channel quality indicatorchannel is presently gated off; if the channel quality indicator channelis not completely gated off, then transmitting a message on the channelquality indicator channel to a different sector; if the channel qualityindicator channel is completely gated off, then: transmitting asignaling message on a data control channel to the base station;receiving a forward link acknowledgment message on a common assignmentchannel; switching to a different sector; and transmitting a reverselink acknowledgment message on the data control channel.

In another aspect, a method is presented for transitioning from animproved Control-Hold Mode to an Active Mode, wherein the transitioningis initiated by a remote station, the method comprising: transmitting asignaling message over a reverse data control channel to a base stationwhile in the improved Control-Hold Mode; starting continuoustransmissions over a channel quality indicator channel to the basestation; starting the monitoring of a forward packet data channel and anassociated control channel; receiving an acknowledgment signal over theforward packet data channel; and starting reverse link transmissions inaccordance with the Active Mode.

In another aspect, a method is presented for transitioning a remotestation from an improved Control-Hold Mode to an Active Mode, whereinthe transitioning is initiated by a base station, the method comprising:transmitting a signaling message over a forward common assignmentchannel to the remote station, whereupon the signaling message isrepeatedly transmitted until an acknowledgment signal is received fromthe remote station; transmitting an acknowledgment message over areverse data control channel to the base station from the remotestation; activating at least two feedback channels at the remotestation; and starting the monitoring of a forward packet data channeland associated control channel at the remote station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a wireless communication network.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a hand-off procedure for a remote station inthe improved Control-Hold Mode.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an inter-BTS cell switching procedure for aremote station in the improved Control-Hold Mode.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for transitioning from the improved Control-HoldMode to the Active Mode, wherein the procedure is instigated by a remotestation.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for transitioning from the improved Control-HoldMode to the Active Mode, wherein the procedure is instigated by a basestation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a wireless communication network 10 generallyincludes a plurality of mobile stations (also called remote stations,subscriber units or user equipment) 12 a-12 d, a plurality of basestations (also called base station transceivers (BTSs) or Node B). 14a-14 c, a base station controller (BSC) (also called radio networkcontroller or packet control function 16), a mobile switching center(MSC) or switch 18, a packet data serving node (PDSN) or internetworkingfunction (IWF) 20, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 22(typically a telephone company), and an Internet Protocol (IP) network24 (typically the Internet). For purposes of simplicity, four mobilestations 12 a-12 d, three base stations 14 a-14 c, one BSC 16, one MSC18, and one PDSN 20 are shown. It would be understood by those skilledin the art that there could be any number of mobile stations 12, basestations 14, BSCs 16, MSCs 18, and PDSNs 20.

In one embodiment, the wireless communication network 10 is a packetdata services network. The mobile stations 12 a-12 d may be any of anumber of different types of wireless communication device such as aportable phone, a cellular telephone that is connected to a laptopcomputer running IP-based, Web-browser applications, a cellulartelephone with associated hands-free car kits, a personal data assistant(PDA) running IP-based, Web-browser applications, a wirelesscommunication module incorporated into a portable computer, or a fixedlocation communication module such as might be found in a wireless localloop or meter reading system. In the most general embodiment, mobilestations may be any type of communication unit.

The mobile stations 12 a-12 d may advantageously be configured toperform one or more wireless packet data protocols such as described in,for example, the EIA/TIA/IS-707 standard. In a particular embodiment,the mobile stations 12 a-12 d generate IP packets destined for the IPnetwork 24 and encapsulate the IP packets into frames using apoint-to-point protocol (PPP).

In one embodiment the IP network 24 is coupled to the PDSN 20, the PDSN20 is coupled to the MSC 18, the MSC 18 is coupled to the BSC 16 and thePSTN 22, and the BSC 16 is coupled to the base stations 14 a-14 c viawirelines configured for transmission of voice and/or data packets inaccordance with any of several known protocols including, e.g., E1, T1,Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), IP, PPP, Frame Relay, HDSL, ADSL, orxDSL. In an alternate embodiment, the BSC 16 is coupled directly to thePDSN 20, and the MSC 18 is not coupled to the PDSN 20.

During typical operation of the wireless communication network 10, thebase stations 14 a-14 c receive and demodulate sets of reverse signalsfrom various mobile stations 12 a-12 d engaged in telephone calls, Webbrowsing, or other data communications. Each reverse signal received bya given base station 14 a-14 c is processed within that base station 14a-14 c. Each base station 14 a-14 c may communicate with a plurality ofmobile stations 12 a-12 d by modulating and transmitting sets of forwardsignals to the mobile stations 12 a-12 d. For example, as shown in FIG.1, the base station 14 a communicates with first and second mobilestations 12 a, 12 b simultaneously, and the base station 14 ccommunicates with third and fourth mobile stations 12 c, 12 dsimultaneously. The resulting packets are forwarded to the BSC 16, whichprovides call resource allocation and mobility management functionalityincluding the orchestration of soft handoffs of a call for a particularmobile station 12 a-12 d from one base station 14 a-14 c to another basestation 14 a-14 c. For example, a mobile station 12 c is communicatingwith two base stations 14 b, 14 c simultaneously. Eventually, when themobile station 12 c moves far enough away from one of the base stations14 c, the call will be handed off to the other base station 14 b.

If the transmission is a conventional telephone call, the BSC 16 willroute the received data to the MSC 18, which provides additional routingservices for interface with the PSTN 22. If the transmission is apacket-based transmission such as a data call destined for the IPnetwork 24, the MSC 18 will route the data packets to the PDSN 20, whichwill send the packets to the IP network 24. Alternatively, the BSC 16will route the packets directly to the PDSN 20, which sends the packetsto the IP network 24.

In some communication systems, packets carrying data traffic are dividedinto subpackets, which occupy slots of a transmission channel. Forillustrative ease only, the nomenclature of a cdma2000 system is usedherein. Such use is not intended to limit the implementation of theembodiments herein to cdma2000 systems. Embodiments can be implementedin other systems, such as, e.g., WCDMA, without affecting the scope ofthe embodiments described herein.

The forward link from the base station to a remote station operatingwithin the range of the base station can comprise a plurality ofchannels. Some of the channels of the forward link can include, but arenot limited to a pilot channel, synchronization channel, paging channel,quick paging channel, broadcast channel, power control channel,assignment channel, control channel, dedicated control channel, mediumaccess control (MAC) channel, fundamental channel, supplemental channel,supplemental code channel, and packet data channel. The reverse linkfrom a remote station to a base station also comprises a plurality ofchannels. Some of the channels of the reverse link can include, but arenot limited to a pilot channel, power control channel, assignmentchannel, control channel, dedicated control channel, medium accesscontrol (MAC) channel, fundamental channel, supplemental channel,acknowledgment channel, and a channel quality indicator channel.

Each channel carries different types of information to the targetdestination. Typically, voice traffic is carried on fundamentalchannels, and data traffic is carried on supplemental channels or packetdata channels. Supplemental channels are usually dedicated channels,while packet data channels usually carry signals that are designated fordifferent parties in a time and code-multiplexed manner. Alternatively,packet data channels are also described as shared supplemental channels.

Voice traffic and data traffic are typically encoded, modulated, andspread before transmission on either the forward or reverse links. Theencoding, modulation, and spreading can be implemented in a variety offormats. In a CDMA system, the transmission format ultimately dependsupon the type of channel over which the voice traffic and data trafficare being transmitted and the condition of the channel, which can bedescribed in terms of fading and interference. Transmission parameterscan be carried over one or several separate control channels, which canbe implemented to transmit occasionally or to transmit each time a datatraffic transmission occurs. The receipt of the transmission parameterswill allow the decoder to quickly reset the decoding and demodulationsettings of certain internal components to the appropriate settings. Inaddition, the receipt of the transmission parameters on the controlchannel means that the decoder need not perform time-consuming andresource-consuming calculations for alternative transmission parameterson the data traffic channel.

In addition to control channels and data traffic channels, two feedbackchannels, such as the acknowledgment (ACK) channel and the channelquality indicator (CQI) channel, can also be implemented. The ACKchannel in a cdma2000 1×EVDV system is used on the reverse link todirectly acknowledge the receipt of data subpackets on the data trafficchannel. The ACK channel is binary phase shift key (BPSK) modulated,wherein one bit, either 0 or 1, indicates whether a subpacket has beenaccurately decoded or not. The CQI channel is used to signal the needfor a new transmission parameters message on a control channel. Thechannel quality feedback channel is used by the remote station to conveychannel quality measurements of the best serving sector to the basestation. The channel quality is measured in terms of acarrier-in-interference (C/I) ratio and is based upon received forwardlink signals.

In a cdma2000 1×system, a remote station exists in either an Idle Mode,wherein the mobile station is not maintaining a call but is ready toreceive a call, or an Active Mode, wherein the mobile station ismaintaining a call. In the Active Mode, the remote station can enter asub-state called a Control-Hold Mode, wherein the fundamental channelthat would normally operate in the Active Mode is replaced by a datacontrol channel (DCCH) with a gated reverse link pilot. In this versionof the Control-Hold Mode, the remote station neither sends nor receivesuser data traffic. The remote station only sends or receives signalingmessages on the control channels.

The present embodiments are directed to an improved Control-Hold Modethat is designed to reduce the processing requirements of the remotestation. The improved Control-Hold Mode is a state that a remote stationcan enter so that the remote station can cease monitoring variousforward link channels and cease transmitting on various reverse linkchannels, without entering the Idle Mode. Entering the Idle Mode is notdesirable because a remote station that enters the Idle Mode mustrelease communication channels that have already been set up with thebase station. In order to re-enter the Active Mode, the remote stationwould need to re-establish communication channels, which could be timeconsuming.

Attributes of the improved Control-Hold Mode are as follows:

1. The forward secondary packet data control channel (F-SPDCCH) is notmonitored.

2. The forward primary packet data control channel (F-PPDCCH) is notmonitored.

3. The packet data channel (PDCH) is not monitored.

4. The forward acknowledgment channel (F-ACKCH) is not monitored.

5. The reverse acknowledgment channel (R-ACKCH) is turned off.

6. The reverse channel quality indicator channel (R-CQICH) is gated offat system defined duty cycles, such as 0, {fraction (1/16)}, ⅛, ¼, and½.

7. The reverse pilot channel (R-PICH) is gated off at system definedduty cycles.

8. The reverse data control channel (R-DCCH) is maintained at adiscontinuous transmission mode.

9. The modified forward common assignment channel (F-CACH) is monitoredcontinuously.

10. Every base station in the active set of the remote station maintainsa forward common power control channel (F-CPCCH) sub-channel for theremote station. The F-CPCCH sub-channel is gated off at the same rate asthe reverse pilot channel (R-PICH).

11. Maintaining a power control loop between the remote station and abase station using the F-CPCCH and the R-PICH. Or alternatively,maintaining a power control loop between the remote station and a basestation using the F-CPCCH and a R-Power control sub-channel.

Due to the intricate interactions between the various data trafficchannels, control channels and feedback channels in a variety ofsituations such as “hand-off” and inter-BTS cell switching, the problemof implementing the improved Control-Hold mode is non-trivial. A term“hand-off” refers to the process of updating the “active set” in theremote station. Inter-BTS cell switching refers to the process ofexchanging one serving sector of a base station or BTS to a servingsector of another BTS.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a hand-off procedure in the improvedControl-Hold Mode. A processor and a memory element can be configured toexecute instructions for performing the hand-off procedure. The generalpractice for performing hand-offs identifies the transmission energylevels of signals (usually pilot signals) received from base stationcandidates and then classifying the base station candidates into atleast four sets. Of these sets, the active set is of interest in theembodiments described herein. In the Idle Mode, the active set is theset containing the serving base station for the remote station. In theActive Mode, the active set is the set containing all base stations fromwhich information is being actively demodulated and decoded by theremote station.

At step 200, the remote station transmits a pilot strength measurementmessage (PSMM) on the R-DCCH to a base station.

At step 210, the base station transmits a signaling message to theremote station, wherein the signaling message triggers a transition ofthe remote station from the improved Control-Hold Mode to the ActiveMode. The signaling message should be transmitted in an assured manner,such as possible when transmitting a Resource Allocation Mini-Message onthe F-CACH.

At step 220, the remote station transmits a Layer 2 acknowledgmentmessage on the R-DCCH to the base station and transitions into theActive Mode from the improved Control-Hold Mode.

At step 230, the base station transmits a Universal Hand-Off DirectionMessage (UHDM) to the remote station on the F-PDCH. The UHDM messagecarries information that allows the remote station to update the activeset.

At step 240, the remote station updates the active set as directed bythe UHDM message and then transitions from the Active Mode to theimproved Control-Hold Mode. The transition time from the Active Mode tothe improved Control-Hold Mode in this step can be a system-definedparameter that is carried by the UHDM message. Alternatively, thetransition time can be a predetermined duration stored by the remotestation.

At step 250, the remote station transmits a signaling message to thebase station, wherein the signaling message is for acknowledging thereceipt of the UHDM message. In one embodiment, the signaling messagecan be a Hand-off Completion Message transmitted on the R-DCCH.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an inter-BTS cell switching procedure that canbe implemented when the remote station is in the improved Control-HoldMode. A processor and a memory element can be configured to executeinstructions for performing the procedure. At step 300, the remotestation determines whether the R-CQICH is completely gated off or not.If the R-CQICH is not completely gated off, then at step 305, the remotestation transmits a message on the R-CQICH to the target BTS.

At step 310, if the R-CQICH is completely gated off, then the remotestation transmits a signaling message on the R-DCCH to a base station,wherein the signaling message carries information about the readiness ofthe remote station to switch to the cell of another BTS.

At step 320, the base station transmits a signaling message thatacknowledges the message transmitted at step 310. The signaling messagecan be carried on the F-CACH.

At step 330, the remote station transmits an acknowledgement message onthe R-DCCH and switches to the new cell.

The previous embodiments describe the procedures that can be performedby the remote station while in the improved Control-Hold Mode. Theembodiments that follow describe procedures that can be followed fortransitioning out of the improved Control-Hold Mode. In one procedure,the transition from the improved Control-Hold Mode to the Active Mode isinitiated by the remote station. In another procedure, the transitionfrom the improved Control-Hold Mode to the Active Mode is initiated bythe base station.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing a procedure that can be followed whenthe remote station initiates a transition. A processor and a memoryelement can be configured to execute instructions for performing theprocedure. At step 400, the remote station transmits a signaling messageover the R-DCCH.

At step 410, the remote station starts transmitting continuously on theR-CQICH.

At step 420, the remote station starts monitoring the F-SPDCCH and theF-PDCH and turns on the R-ACKCH. In one embodiment, the transmissionpower of the remote station is set based on the power controlled reversepilot and a predetermined traffic-to-pilot (T/P) ratio.

At step 430, the base station that is targeted by the remote stationtransmits an acknowledgment message to the remote station over theF-PDCH. Alternatively, the acknowledgement message, which contains amedium access control identifier MAC_ID, can be transmitted over theF-CACH.

At step 440, after receiving the acknowledgment from the target basestation, the remote station starts transmitting on the reverse link. Ifthe remote station does not receive the acknowledgment from the basestation within a predetermined time period, then at step 450, the remotestation retransmits the signaling message using the R-DCCH.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for transitioning from animproved Control-Hold Mode to an Active Mode that can be implementedwhen a base station is the initiating party. A processor and a memoryelement can be configured to execute instructions for performing theprocedure. At step 500, the base station transmits a signaling messageto a target remote station. The signaling message includes the MAC_IDand is sent over a F-CACH.

The transmission power of the F-CACH is based on a maintained powercontrol bit power level. As noted earlier, a power control loop betweenthe remote station and the base station is maintained while the remotestation is in the improved Control-Hold Mode.

At step 510, the target remote station transmits an acknowledgmentmessage over the R-DCCH once the signaling message is received.

At step 520, the target remote station turns on the R-CQICH and R-ACKCHand starts monitoring the F-SPDCCH and F-PDCH.

At step 530, the base station detects transmissions on the newlyactivated R-CQICH and schedules data transmissions to the target remotestation accordingly. If the base station does not receive theacknowledgment transmitted from the remote station at step 510, the basestation continues to transmit the signaling message until such anacknowledgment is received.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrativelogical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described inconnection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented aselectronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Toclearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software,various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and stepshave been described above generally in terms of their functionality.Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or softwaredepends upon the particular application and design constraints imposedon the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the describedfunctionality in varying ways for each particular application, but suchimplementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present invention.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implementedor performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with theembodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processorcan read information from, and write information to, the storage medium.In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC mayreside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and thestorage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for implementing an improvedControl-Hold Mode within a remote station, wherein the remote stationoperates within a communication system that employs packet data channelswith associated control channels, and associated feedback channels,comprising: a memory element; and a processing element configured toexecute a set of instructions stored in the memory element, the set ofinstructions for: ceasing the monitoring of packet data channels from abase station; ceasing the monitoring of control channels associated withthe packet data channels from the base station; turning off a reverselink acknowledgment channel; gating off transmissions from the remotestation to the base station; and intermittently transmitting over a datacontrol channel.
 2. A method for updating an active set when a remotestation is in an improved Control-Hold Mode, comprising: transmitting apilot strength measurement to a base station; receiving a signalingmessage from the base station; transitioning from the improvedControl-Hold Mode to an Active Mode, wherein the transitioning istriggered by the signaling message; receiving an acknowledgment messagewith update information from the base station; updating the active setwith the update information from the base station; and transitioningfrom the Active Mode to the Control-Hold Mode.
 3. A method for a remotestation to switch sectors in a base station while the remote station isin a Control-Hold Mode, comprising: determining whether a channelquality indicator channel is presently gated off; if the channel qualityindicator channel is not completely gated off, then transmitting amessage on the channel quality indicator channel to a different sector;if the channel quality indicator channel is completely gated off, then:transmitting a signaling message on a data control channel to the basestation; receiving a forward link acknowledgment message on a commonassignment channel; switching to a different sector; and transmitting areverse link acknowledgment message on the data control channel.
 4. Amethod for transitioning from an improved Control-Hold Mode to an ActiveMode, wherein the transitioning is initiated by a remote station, themethod comprising: transmitting a signaling message over a reverse datacontrol channel to a base station while in the improved Control-HoldMode; starting continuous transmissions over a channel quality indicatorchannel to the base station; starting the monitoring of a forward packetdata channel and an associated control channel; receiving anacknowledgment signal over the forward packet data channel; and startingreverse link transmissions in accordance with the Active Mode.
 5. Amethod for transitioning a remote station from an improved Control-HoldMode to an Active Mode, wherein the transitioning is initiated by a basestation, the method comprising: transmitting a signaling message over aforward common assignment channel to the remote station, whereupon thesignaling message is repeatedly transmitted until an acknowledgmentsignal is received from the remote station; transmitting anacknowledgment message over a reverse data control channel to the basestation from the remote station; activating at least two feedbackchannels at the remote station; and starting the monitoring of a forwardpacket data channel and associated control channel at the remotestation.